


Theft of Hearts

by KASPIAN (orphan_account)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Feral Behavior, Hybrids, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-22 19:01:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16603742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/KASPIAN
Summary: Someone is stealing Kyungsoo’s fruit pies, and he doesn’t know who.





	Theft of Hearts

 

 

This is the fourth time it has happened.

Kyungsoo comes back after grocery shopping or after waking up from a nap to find that the window sill in the kitchen is empty.

Or furthermore, the table in the room is, because that’s where he has placed the fruit pie this time.

It’s empty for the snack that’s supposed to be there, damping from being newly baked as the window is open and the birds chirp outside and a fresh breeze seeps into the cottage.

Kyungsoo had been bemused at first, thinking that a wild animal had taken it; a bear maybe, which then made him feel rather nervous.

Yet he knows that there’s not supposed to be any dangerous animals here, even if the forest is big and leads to other valleys and a rich nature life.

But he lives in an area where the most dangerous animal you’d encounter would be one of the smaller elks or perhaps a dog that has run away from the village nearby.

And the disappear-and-vanish act keeps happening - again and again.

Kyungsoo hasn’t gotten a bite of his own pies ever since he moved to this cabin in the forest, deserted but a few kilometers away from the nearest population.

Kyungsoo has moved here because he seeks inspiration as an artist working with watercolors and nimble designs that contain either vibrant or dull colors. Stories about the spiritual life and their beliefs, although he doesn’t believe in such himself.

It’s his work; something he finds dear, and in-between looking around and doing paperwork and sometimes teaching at the local school in visual arts, he bakes.

There’s no bite of pie waiting for him though, because it’s completely gone - and all that’s left is the plate with a few crumbs on it.

Kyungsoo leans out of the window to look around, but there’s nothing, not even footsteps but just a bit of flattened grass.

The forest is silent for now, and in the distance a car passes by, driving on the road that snakes through the area.

The difference today is that Kyungsoo left his phone when he went out.

Tilted and standing on the kitchen desk, still recording most likely; has been doing so for the past half hour.

A creak fills the silence.

Kyungsoo sits on one of the wooden, old chairs, fiddling with his phone, his curiosity really starting to gnaw his inner as he stops the recording and immediately checks the long video that takes up lots of space on his phone.

During the first fifteen minutes, there’s nothing.

Kyungsoo scrolls through it, but jolts on his chair when he sees something out of place - tapping carefully on the screen on the middle, right after seventeen minutes have passed.

The phone isn’t directed towards the window, only a bit, and Kyungsoo has had to balance his phone on a book to make it stand taller and get more in view.

What he hears from the phone now is a thunk.

Two - like hooves clopping over the floor as someone climbs in, and then there’s-

There’s two plump asscheeks in view and a , lean back-

And a tail.

The tail of a deer, white on the back and lined with brown on the sides, small dots speckled on the front, the appendage flicking lightly as apparently a  _ man _ enters the room through  _ the window _ .

The seemingly young man keeps his back turned, and the camera is too low to get more in view other than the back of muscular thighs, and a lower back, as the man stands before the pie and just…

Eats.

Kyungsoo can’t hear anything, other than a small, breezy ‘’woah’’, somewhat excited, and then the tail starts downright wagging.

Well.

Kyungsoo is just staring at the screen, mouth agape while the next eight minutes of the video contains the man chewing and sounding generally pleased once in awhile despite being silent otherwise, eating with his fingers but diligently.

He’s still got a piece of pie in his hand when he leaves, turning to the side, climbing out again.

Which is it.

It takes another five minutes of staring into the air for Kyungsoo to realize that he has been visited by a  **_feral hybrid_ ** -

Those that don’t wander around much anymore, or at least not in these parts.

They do in untended forest areas like large naturally kept places, but not in the cities or where Kyungsoo originally comes from.

Hybrids can either be dependent or independent.

They come in varied degrees, and the first ones were feral, but others erupted among them, either ones that could be taken as pets with special and thorough care, or ones who were on equal footing with ordinary humans… as most hybrids were and are, though some of them have a differently constructed mind that is more dependent on primal needs.

This is the first time Kyungsoo has encountered a wild one, savage from the woods.

And the hybrid is stealing…

His fruit pies.

Kyungsoo puts the phone down, lifting his head to stare out of the window.

He doesn’t know what he’s thinking right now, or what he’s feeling.

Somehow, it’s scary to know that a cross between a man and deer is lurking around his cottage, and somehow he’s kind of curious.

The young man didn’t seem dangerous anyhow, but one might never know.

Kyungsoo could call a public service and get them to find the hybrid in case the deer continues to intrude on ground that doesn’t belong to him.

Yet instead, Kyungsoo’s nose crinkles, and he smiles as he thinks of a plan.

He’s been waiting for almost nineteen minutes now.

Camping around the corner, tongue stuck out as he checks again to see that the pie is still standing on the table, damp and recently baked.

Kyungsoo has been subtle; waited a few couple of days before baking another pie, this time one with strawberries in it. And for his own safety, he has a hammer next to him from the shed, his phone too - just in case.

A part of his brain tells him it’ll be great if the deer doesn’t come, because that’ll mean that the nuisance is gone and that there won’t be any problem.

But Kyungsoo is curious, and the other half is anticipating, wanting to see a real wild hybrid in flesh and skin, new ideas for his paintings appearing in his mind and his tummy feeling bubbly.

He’s in the middle of creating a scenario of water colors resembling a new tinge when a shrill noise disturbs the thoughts, making his heart jump in his chest; his hold on the hammer tightening.

It’s the same sound from the phone recording, but present this time with not-quite-feet pressing against the planks.

Kyungsoo gulps and looks around the corner, still seated on the ground as he takes in the view of the man standing a couple of meters ahead.

He’s lean, just like the video had framed him to be.

And tall-

Really, really tall.

He would’ve had an average height if he was all human, but from his knees and where human shins should’ve been, there’s deer legs instead, with mentioned hooves along with brown fur and white streaks.

A beautiful pair of antlers sprout from the man’s head, not too big but not small either - will probably become bigger when he’s full-grown and older.

The tail whips up and down a bit, and deer ears flick as well as the man approaches the pie with a surprisingly…

Fond smile on his face.

Kyungsoo shouldn’t be stopping like this with spit caught in his throat while his eyes trace the muscular but lanky form and the height of a good 190 centimeters; this man with tanned skin and mocha brown hair and, unfortunately, a pretty face too.

He really shouldn’t.

And he doesn’t know what he’s thinking as he flies up from his spot and stomps on the floor, standing in the doorframe with a wobble on his lips, pointing the hammer at the hybrid -  **‘’Hey, you!’’**

The man stiffens in a nanosecond, ears and tail whipping up in alert and body tensing.

His eyes are wide and alarmed -

and of course he’s completely , front turning Kyungsoo’s way.

Kyungsoo’s gaze drops just shortly, but enough to have him popping his attention up high again, a hue of pink setting his cheeks aflame.

‘’You.. you, what do you think you’re doing?’’ he demands, voice deep and supposedly intimidating despite the crack in the end.

There’s no response.

The hybrid continues to stare, eyes so impossibly large and throat bobbing.

It happens so fast.

Kyungsoo only has to blink once -

A back is turned to him, filling out in the window as the man goes for an escape route -

But to the man’s terror or Kyungsoo’s luck, the deer is caught in a frenzy, long legs awkward and the tip of one hoof getting stuck in a hole on the floor that Kyungsoo hasn’t fixed yet-

And ouch-

Ouch **_ouch_ ** , Kyungsoo whimpers inwardly, because the man wheezes out aloud as he sits with one leg on each side of the window sill, crotch pressed there from the hurry.

To make it any better, one side of his antlers are clanking into the upper-part of the window, and the deer is frantic, huffing out and still trying to escape but to no avail, stuck from head to toe, back hunched and hands flighty against the frame of the window.

More flailing ensues when Kyungsoo approaches him, but Kyungsoo holds his hands out, already having let go of the hammer as he shushes and spits out hurried promises.

‘’Wait, I’m not going to hurt you,’’ he says when the deer wrenches helplessly, and the window is in general just too small for a giant like that, ‘’I was just joking about the hammer!’’

‘’Seriously, pinky swear-’’ Kyungsoo blabbers, ‘’pinky promise, really-’’

It’s first when one palm lands atop the hybrid’s shoulder that the man stills, eyes before clenched shut beneath curly bangs, though one cracks open now to take a look.

Kyungsoo keeps himself calm, staring right back into brown eyes.

‘’Not going to hurt you,’’ he promises, shaking his head slowly, and the hand on the shoulder stays, smoothing up to the branched horn.

The man doesn’t say anything.

His chest is heaving up and down, less frantic though.

It’s a slow process.

And it takes minutes, soothing the hybrid as Kyungsoo limits the touching but gives small orders for how they can solve the situation.

‘’No, no- here, lean here-’’ he says, tugging.

The hybrid hunches even more, while Kyungsoo stands in an awkward, bent position with his other hand managing to pull the hoof up from the crack.

He hasn’t even thought about the fact that through these circumstances and the way he’s pulling, it means he’s inviting the deer inside again.

It surfaces just as he lets out a squawk, because the man finally pushes free, loosing his balance in the process, and coincidentally falling Kyungsoo’s way.

There’s a bang of Kyungsoo’s back hitting the floor; a clatter and scrape of the nearby stool getting pushed out of the way, stumbling onto its side due to the hybrid following suit who lands atop Kyungsoo -

Seated on knees and hands over the human, shading Kyungsoo’s small form in comparison.

Their eyes lock in a long gaze.

Of Kyungsoo who doesn’t know if he should be scared for what’ll happen now,

and of the man who glares with eyes as wide as before.

None of them move a muscle.

That is, until the giant’s eyebrows arch impossibly high, a sudden boyish smile flashing on his lips and his tail behind him wagging eagerly-

And Kyungsoo barely gets to think twice before he’s got a pair of lips on his own, kissing him hard but chastely.

He lets out a muffled sound, because up next there’s another row of pecks, this time light like the flutter of a butterfly’s wings, repeatedly on his mouth.

There’s some more scraping of chairs getting knocked over from Kyungsoo backing up and over the floor, crabbing away but with a giant hybrid following suit -

‘’Hey, what’re you- I mean- why-’’ Kyungsoo’s cheeks might as well burst aflame, throat tight and lower lip quivering when the taller kisses his nose too, but mostly his mouth -

And Kyungsoo can’t even push the other way due to being so overwhelmed, or the fact that the kisses are so light and done with a smile on the man’s lips, fond and excited - like it has a different meaning than what most make it to be.

The man is hunched over the human, too tall and tail going whiplash like that of a puppy’s.

_ ‘’Hey!’’  _ Kyungsoo’s face may or may not be as red as the strawberries on the pie once he has managed to wedge a finger up between their lips, holding it against the man’s lips-

Oh god, the hybrid kisses that too-

‘’You-,’’ Kyungsoo whimpers, this time grabbing the man by the jaw, gritting his teeth when the deer kisses Kyungsoo’s palm.

‘’What the hell is your deal?’’ Kyungsoo demands, brows furrowed.

His voice must be firm enough, because the man stops and stares.

‘’I’m-’’

Oh - he can speak,

‘’I’m thanking you,’’ he says, blinking his eyes.

It’s a bit stubby, but the message gets through.

Kyungsoo raises a brow.

‘’By  _ kissing me _ ?’’ he whispers, doing his best not to lose his cool.

The deer shifts. ‘’How else would I?’’ he asks, voice soft in an unusual way.

His eyes are so innocent too, or just genuine, like he solely thinks that this is the only way to do it.

Kyungsoo decides not to fight it, and instead moves on.

He clears his throat.

‘’My pies,’’ he says.

‘’Why-’’ there’s a tick to his eyebrow,

‘’Why are you eating them?’’

The man blinks.

‘’They weren’t for me?’’

Kyungsoo gapes.

‘’What um,’’ his gaze shortly flicks down, only to whisk up again because okay, the man is still very much .

‘’What made you think they were?’’

‘’The previous owner used to leave some in the window sill too. The same kind. Until she passed away, I mean.’’

Something bottoms in Kyungsoo’s stomach.

‘’Oh,’’ he says. No wonder the man can speak if he might’ve been half-dependent and independent with a supposed owner in the past.

Kyungsoo doesn’t know of any previous owner other than something that was briefly mentioned when he moved in a month ago, but the last owner had been here years ago apparently.

His mouth feels dry.

It opens anyway,

‘’Do you want some more?’’ he asks, voice gentle.

The man’s eyes light up, and he nods, surprising Kyungsoo again with a lingering kiss, deer ears flicking forward in glee.

Jongin, as the hybrid’s name is, is too damn big for the chairs in the kitchen.

But he sits there anyway.

Finely seated, like a fair, well-mannered prince, and looks at Kyungsoo with a smile so big it will crack in two very soon if he continues like that.

They’re both eating pie; Jongin eagerly with his fingers but less messily, and Kyungsoo on the opposite chair, holding a little plate and spoon up.

‘’So,’’ he finishes chewing, and Jongin looks at Kyungsoo again, murmuring a small ‘hmm?’

‘’You kiss to show gratitude?’’ the human asks, no harsh tone in his voice but only curiosity.

Jongin nods with a hunch of pie caged in the left side of his cheek that he hasn’t chewed yet, and normally Kyungsoo would’ve been prim and pointed it out, but this is a different case, and his heart is swelling.

‘’It’s because granny would kiss my cheek whenever I came to say hi,’’ Jongin points out.

‘’She always told me you should kiss the people you love or appreciate, right?’’ he says, and Kyungsoo stops himself from plopping the spoon into his mouth, the metal resting against his lower lip.

Jongin continues.

‘’She’s gone now though, but she had been here ever since I was a kid and all’’ -

His smile becomes less enthusiastic -

‘’And I miss her, so I have a lot of love in store that I need to get out.’’

Kyungsoo blinks.

‘’Ah,’’ he says, ‘’well, that’s… yeah.’’

‘’For some reason,’’ Jongin bows his head a bit, ‘’I thought she had returned, meaning that… the pies were for me. And I ran because you weren’t her, so…,’’ it’s a sheepish apology -

‘’Don’t worry,’’ Kyungsoo shakes his head. ‘’No damage has been done.’’

Silence fills in again.

Just as Jongin is done with his piece of pie, Kyungsoo leans on the table and mutters a small ‘’hey…’’

Jongin tilts his head, turning his body too; the chair creaking with the motion.

‘’If you want to, I could bake you a pie every week or so. Maybe you could try out some of my other dishes?’’ Kyungsoo suggests, trying to sound nonchalant like it’s a sacred opportunity, but fails and is unable to keep the indication within his voice out.

Jongin stills for a second, ears lying flat.

Then they raise again and the deer smiles, so bright -

Bright for a lonely soul and a love so big.

  
  



End file.
